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'Tetley Bittermen' (and possibly ladies too) in Sheffield


Bilge

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Well, had a so-so pint of Tets in the Scarborough, outside Leeds station the other night. Leeds is not really trying very hard, I'm sure Sheff can claim the title.

 

So I'll be doing some serious research in the run-up to Chrimbo and will be giving my vote to a local hostelry before the end of the year. I advise everyone else to do the same.

 

So clean up those pipes landlords, and let the creamy stuff flow forth.

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.......Sadly, Tetley's are being closed by owners, Carlsberg. Production of the beer is being moved to Nottingham I think.....

 

Ridiculous, scandalous. Much like Boddies closing down in Strangeways, or Stones/Wards here in Sheff.

 

I love all the new little breweries but the big city brweries were great too. I like how they dictated the signage and architecture of pubs, indeed the whole pub experience for a region. Monopolistic I suppose, but if they sold decent ale I didn't mind. The John Smith's estate though was stalinism, I've never forgiven them for all that awful keg stuff and can't really be doing with John Smith's cask because of that underlying hatred - even though it's not a bad pint I suppose.

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  • 2 years later...

I know what you are saying about the original Tetley bitter. The best pub I recall around these parts was the Angel at Spinkhill. Appreciate that isn't quite in Sheffield. Other than that I had it while in Leeds and it was also very good there in a number of different pubs.

 

You can't begin to compare what Tetley's was like then with the brew served under the same name now. The same goes for Stones. The original Stones bitter with its pale straw like colour and well-hopped creamy taste was exquisite. The best pint of Stones I ever had was at the Devonshire at Middle Handley. Pure nectar. (Back in the days of Tom Walker).

 

Again - that's a completely different proposition now.

 

Breweries closed down and bigger brewers took them over - changed the recipes and moved production. Shipstones was another one that used to be a bit of a rare delight in these parts. The British Oak at Mosborough kept a very good pint - but this brewery also went the same way.

 

Thank heavens that the real ale movement was started by CAMRA and the big brewers haven't completely had their way.

 

Having said that - they have been sneaky in introducing some mass produced real ales, like Pedigree, Landlord, Black Sheep, London Pride, Deuchars, Old Speckled Hen, Ruddles to their pubs to meet the real ale demand. These are some of your "mainstream" real ales - many of them are pale shadows of their former self - and you can do far better.

 

The small microbreweries are a breath of fresh air. So good in fact, that I doubt whether even the original Tetley and Stones's could compete with them.

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In my days of following the Blades very often the highlight of the day when playing at home would be the Tetley's in The Cremorne before the match. It was wonderful.

 

The beer-clip with the same image and name is not dispensing the same drink these days.

 

Same applies to Stones (best pint The Castle at Bolsterstone) and Ward's (RIP - best pint probably The Hallamshire, Commonside).

 

There are some wonderful bitters produced by the micro-breweries but I'd sell my house for a pint of original Waaaaaarrrrdddss.

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Hmmm bring back wardss and shipstones!

 

Ah yes, Shippo's was lovely stuff too. So was Home Ales Bitter. Good 'session ales' as the CAMRA men call them.

 

I was never that keen on Ward's really. It wasn't on handpumps very often either - why was that? Even when it was cask it was electric dispense which seemed to make it taste much like the keg version to me.

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Another thing I miss is being able to order 'a pint of bitter' in a pub. I haven't uttered that phrase for years. I always have to specify some beer with a stupid name to distinguish it from the others or from the 3 or 4 taps of creamflow dross.

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